Celtic 3-1 Hibs: Hibs are hit by harsh reality

As much progress as might have been made at Easter Road in recent weeks, Hibs were given a sharp reminder of just how far they have to go if they are to compete at the top end of the SPL table in the near future.

A run of seven matches undefeated was brought to a shuddering halt in no uncertain manner by a Celtic side with the whiff of the title very much in their nostrils, boss Colin Calderwood admitting the 90 minutes in the east end of Glasgow had been a chastening experience for his players.

Such was the superiority of Neil Lennon's team in the opening 45 minutes - a period in which they scored three and could easily have claimed twice as many - Calderwood was moved to reveal thoughts of how Celtic had hammered nine goals past Aberdeen earlier in the season had sprung to mind.

The fact they didn't was down to a combination of Hibs improving after the interval while Celtic, assured they'd already leapfrogged arch-rivals Rangers into pole position in the championship race once again, eased back on the throttle, allowing Liam Miller to claim a consolation strike for the Edinburgh club via the penalty spot.

"Excellent," was how Hoops coach Johan Mjallby described his side's first-half performance and he'd have found no-one arguing, least of all Calderwood, well aware that on such an occasion there's little you can do but hold up your hands and concede the better team won.

And to that end the former Scotland defender was brutally frank in assessing his team's display, saying: "We did not cope at all well, too early in the first half we were behind. They caused their own problems really, poor positioning, poor awareness, not coping with what was in front of them."

Having said that, however, Calderwood insisted Celtic were capable of inflicting such damage on most clubs, not just his own, thankful that it hadn't been much worse as he reflected: "You can be fearful of what happened to Aberdeen earlier in the season could happen to the majority of clubs here."

Within a minute the home side had signalled their intent, Gary Hooper playing a one-two with Anthony Stokes only for Hibs goalkeeper Mark Brown to sense the danger, racing out to narrow the angle and smother the striker's shot. Former Celtic player Brown afterwards admitted he realised immediately it was going to be a long, long night for him and his team-mates.

Three minutes later and Celtic had made the breakthrough. In trying to pick out Hooper's run Emilio Izaguirre overhit his crossfield pass but instead found ex-Hibs hitman Anthony Stokes who, having sunk his old club at Easter Road with a double, wasted no time in sliding the ball beyond Brown.

The omens weren't good and luck deserted Hibs when, with Michael Hart having nodded Mark Wilson's header off his line, Martin Scott clashed with Scott Brown as he chased the loose ball, the upshot being a penalty which Hooper lashed home. Just 19 minutes on the clock and Calderwood wasn't the only one thinking back to last November when both Stokes and Hooper claimed hat-tricks in sinking the Dons.

Hibs just couldn't find a way out, Brown urging his defenders to advance beyond the 18-yard line where they had set up camp, thus allowing Celtic to indulge in deft flicks and touches as they sought to inflict further punishment. Glenn Loovens flashed a header wide, David Stephens just beat Hooper to a Stokes pass and the Irish forward totally missed his kick after his fellow striker had teed him up 12 yards out.

All Hibs could offer in reply was a Miller ball over the top which found Ricardo Vaz Te evading the offside trap, the former Bolton Wanderers star testing Fraser Foster with a shot from a tight angle before Stokes slipped Hooper in again and this time the Englishman wheeled to hammer an unstoppable shot beyond Brown for Celtic's third.

The second half began exactly as the first, Brown again out at the feet of Hooper to deny him a hat-trick before Izaguirre, in similar fashion to Derek Riordan's last-minute miss in Sunday's derby, pulled a shot across goal and wide as Celtic went for the jugular.

But Calderwood had spent the interval well with Hibs looking more resolute although, as the Easter Road boss agreed, there was also an element of Celtic being able to coast the game - and they got some form of reward when David Wotherspoon, having got on the end of Vaz Te's pass, was tugged by Charlie Mulgrew allowing Miller to claim his second spot-kick in three days. However, as Calderwood conceded, his side badly needed a second goal if they were to make Celtic at all nervous, something they didn't manage to achieve with the Glasgow team underlining the gulf in finances by introducing former Arsenal star Freddie Ljungberg and Scotland midfielder Kris Commons to the fray.

Ljungberg won a contentious penalty six minutes from time as he went down under Paul Hanlon's challenge.

The Hibs skipper was incensed by the award, referee Euan Norris having double-checked with his assistant Charlie Smith, but Hanlon would feel justice was served as Hooper, presented with the chance to score his third of the game missed the target altogether.

While admitting the game was over as a contest with Celtic's third goal, Calderwood felt his side had shown better qualities in the second half, adamant his players, five of whom were 20 or under would learn from the experience but insisted he needed to see "rapid, rapid" improvement.

Defeat by Celtic ended Hibs' faint hopes of defying all the odds by claiming a top-six finish, the first time they have failed to do so in seven seasons, although, of course, the damage was done earlier in the season, that run of ten matches which produced just two points while, prior to Calderwood's arrival in October, another poor sequence of results had seen eight points taken from five games.

In anyone's language it has been a season everyone connected with Easter Road will simply be glad to see come to an end, the immediate future being seven remaining matches all against teams in the bottom half of the table, starting with Saturday's visit to Aberdeen.

Those games will, at least, present the chance to replicate the unbeaten run which Celtic have just brought to an end although, as Calderwood pointed out, poor results against teams who occupy the lower stretches of the SPL have had much to do with the season having unravelled as it has.